Why Alan Watts Would Say He Wasn’t a Philosopher (And Why He Might Be Right)
Let’s get one thing straight: if you ever called Alan Watts a philosopher, he’d probably laugh in your face—or, more likely, at the absurdity of the label itself. But here’s the real kicker: he’d also be totally serious. For someone who’s often categorized alongside great philosophers like Heidegger or Nietzsche, Watts seemed to delight in rejecting the very notion that he belonged in such a category.
So, why would someone as profoundly insightful as Watts deny being a philosopher? It’s simple: Alan Watts wasn’t interested in categorizing life. He wanted to live it.
Before you write this off as yet another enigmatic quirk of a Zen trickster, hear me out. Watts' refusal to be called a philosopher is more than just wordplay—it's a call to action for all of us. It’s a reminder that the essence of life can’t be captured in tidy definitions or philosophical theories. Watts believed that by over-intellectualizing life, we end up missing the whole point. And here’s why he’s right.
Philosophy: A Mind Game or a Trap?
Let’s be clear: Watts wasn’t anti-philosophy. He respected the great thinkers, but he was more of a rebel than a follower. To Watts, philosophy was a game that people play—an endless loop of ideas, debates, and mental gymnastics that often led nowhere. And he wasn’t shy about calling it out.
In one of his lectures, Watts explained, "The philosopher is like a dog chasing its own tail." He wasn’t dismissing the value of inquiry or deep thought. Instead, he was pointing out the fundamental flaw in how most philosophers approached life—as something to be figured out, rather than something to be experienced.
This is where Watts broke from the traditional mold. While many philosophers were content to sit in ivory towers, scribbling out ideas and arguing over concepts, Watts was far more interested in direct experience. He believed that all of this "thinking" and theorizing actually distanced us from the present moment—the only place where life actually happens.
The Zen Approach: Beyond Thought
For Watts, the best kind of wisdom wasn’t found in books or intellectual debates, but in the direct experience of life itself. His love for Eastern philosophy—particularly Zen—was grounded in the belief that true understanding comes from living, not thinking. In Zen, enlightenment isn’t something you think your way into. It’s something that emerges when you stop trying to think your way out of the present.
Watts saw philosophy as an attempt to control or dominate the unknown with concepts, but Zen? Zen was about surrendering to the unknown, dancing with it, laughing at it. The moment you let go of the need to categorize or define life, it starts to make sense in a way that can’t be captured by words.
Key Takeaways:
Watts believed that thinking about life often distances us from actually living it.
Philosophy, in his view, was a mental loop—useful but ultimately unable to capture the raw experience of being alive.
Zen and Taoism offered a more direct path to understanding: stop trying to understand and just be.
Why Labels Are the Real Problem
If there’s one thing Alan Watts wanted you to do, it was to stop putting life into boxes. He wasn’t just rejecting the label of “philosopher” for the sake of it—he was rejecting the entire idea that life could be reduced to a neat little label. Labels are shortcuts we use to make sense of the world, but they also limit us.
By calling himself a philosopher, Watts would have been pigeonholing his work into a specific realm, one that’s bound by rules, expectations, and intellectual boundaries. But life? Life is boundless, wild, and unpredictable.
Watts knew that by rejecting the title, he was freeing himself—and us—from the trap of seeing the world through a particular lens. To label is to limit, and Watts was all about breaking through those limits. His teachings urged us to see the world as it is—fluid, interconnected, and beyond any conceptual framework.
In Watts’ World:
Labels reduce the vastness of life into something finite and easily digestible.
Philosophy, as a label, creates a framework that distances us from direct experience.
True wisdom, according to Watts, comes from living without the need for constant analysis or categorization.
The Paradox of Being a “Non-Philosopher Philosopher”
Here’s where things get fun. The very act of rejecting the title of philosopher only made Watts more of a philosopher, and therein lies the paradox that he so loved to embrace. By claiming not to be a philosopher, Watts was doing what all great philosophers do: challenging assumptions and shaking up the status quo.
But Watts didn’t just challenge the label—he transcended it. He played with ideas the way a jazz musician plays with notes, never sticking too long to one concept, always improvising, always flowing. He knew that the moment you get stuck on a label, you lose your sense of play. And to Watts, life was a cosmic game, not a problem to be solved.
Key Insights:
Watts was a master of paradox, embodying the very contradictions he spoke about.
He rejected being called a philosopher because he didn’t want to be trapped in the conceptual boxes that philosophy often creates.
The best way to “understand” Watts is not to analyze him, but to play along with him.
The Cosmic Joke
Here’s the punchline that Watts would probably laugh at: the more seriously we take ourselves, our ideas, and our labels, the further we drift from the truth. Life isn’t meant to be dissected and categorized—it’s meant to be lived, to be enjoyed, to be danced with.
Alan Watts didn’t want to be a philosopher because he didn’t want to get caught in the web of ideas. He wanted to be free, and he wanted us to be free too. Free from labels, free from expectations, free from the endless cycle of thinking and analyzing that pulls us out of the present moment.
The cosmic joke, according to Watts, is that we spend so much time trying to figure life out, we miss the fact that life is already happening right now. By not thinking about it too hard, by letting go of the need to label everything—including ourselves—we come closer to true understanding.
Takeaways:
Stop labeling: Whether it’s yourself, your experiences, or others, letting go of labels opens you up to a deeper experience of life.
Live first, think second: Watts would tell you that the most profound wisdom comes from living life, not over-analyzing it.
Embrace the paradox: Sometimes, the greatest insights come from letting go of the need to have everything make sense.
Final Thought: Don’t Think, Just Be
So, if you’ve made it this far, here’s the real challenge: try not to think too much about what you’ve just read. Instead, go out and experience life in all its messy, unpredictable, label-free glory. Because as Alan Watts would tell you, the moment you stop trying to figure everything out is the moment you start truly living.
Quote to Ponder:
“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.” – Alan Watts